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22 Dec

Who Was Ma Rainey’s Real Band?

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Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is one of those rare films with only one major setting: a Chicago recording studio in 1927. The entire film, and the play it was based on, tells the story of four backing musicians waiting for Madame “Ma” Rainey (Viola Davis) to arrive and cut some sides. According to the label on the 78, Rainey’s 1927 recording of “’Ma’ Rainey’s Black Bottom” and her remake of “Moonshine Blues” of that year was done by “Ma” Rainey and her Georgia Jazz Band. The Musicians There are no session notes on the musicians who played on the title…

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21 Dec

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Ending Explained

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This Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom analysis contains spoilers. You can find our spoiler-free review here. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom tells the story of a group of 1920s musicians, composites of session players at the time, waiting for “the Mother of the Blues” to bring her big voice to the big room at Hot Rhythm Recordings. “Ma” Rainey, positively channeled by Viola Davis in the film, owned the copyrights of her songs, some of which became blues standards. Her trumpet player, Levee, masterfully captured by Chadwick Boseman in his cinematic swan song, doesn’t catch that break. The young horn player spends…

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19 Dec

Ma Rainey’s Life and Reign as the Mother of the Blues

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Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom stars Viola Davis as one of the most influential blues singers of all time. The real Ma Rainey was the first stage entertainer to bridge the gap between the white and the Black performance circuits. “If you don’t like my ocean, don’t fish in my sea,” Rainey warned in her 1927 song, “Don’t Fish in My Sea,” but the crowds couldn’t stay away. She was one of the first entertainers to play integrated shows in the Jim Crow South, and the first popular singer with authentic blues in her setlist. “Madame” Gertrude Rainey was the…

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18 Dec

The Journey Of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom From Stage To Screen

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The new Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, starring Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman in his final screen role, is a searing drama set in 1920s Chicago, based on a Tony-winning play by legendary playwright August Wilson. The 1982 show is part of Wilson’s 10-play “Pittsburgh Cycle,” a series of plays mostly set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, each in a different decade, that use families in that neighborhood (where Wilson himself was born) as the lens through which Wilson examines the Black experience in America throughout the 20th century. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is the exception. Set in…

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18 Dec

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Review: Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman Bring Fire to Blues

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Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a powerful, slow-building, jangling film that’s full of life. It may feel loose, but from the script to the cast, there’s not an ounce of fat on it. When the time comes, it delivers a brutal gut-punch, and then one more for the road. Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis take up all the oxygen every time they’re in the room, which makes the anticipation of their eventual showdown feel breathless. In sweltering 1927 Chicago, the legendary “Mother of the Blues” Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) is in town to record an album; her panic-y white manager…

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17 Dec

How Chadwick Boseman Created His Final Performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

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Last August, the world lost Chadwick Boseman, an incredibly talented actor whose relatively short filmography already included a number of great films. His indelible work as T’Challa in the groundbreaking Black Panther and other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — along with his transformation into a bona fide movie star — was a major step forward for the expansion of Black filmmaking and cultural recognition, both inherent aspects of Boseman’s career aspirations. Despite his struggle with colon cancer, which finally claimed him at the age of 43, Boseman made one last film before his death. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,…

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16 Dec

How Viola Davis Became A Blues Legend in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

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Premiering on Netflix this week, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a film adaptation of the award-winning 1982 play of the same name by August Wilson. The stage version was part of Wilson’s 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle, which acted as a chronicle the African American experience in the 20th century. And in the Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom portion of that cycle, events take place over the course of a single recording session in 1920s Chicago. There a fictionalized version of real-life blues singer Ma Rainey (played in the film by Viola Davis) and the members of her band–including the ambitious and hot-headed…

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21 Nov

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

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Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey (Viola Davis). Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio’s claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee (Chadwick Boseman) — who has an eye for Ma’s girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry — spurs his fellow musicians into an…

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20 Oct

Chadwick Boseman’s Final Film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Gets Trailer

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The Blues is one of the earliest and most enduring musical traditions in Black American culture. Rooted in African musical traditions, spirituals, and African American work songs, the blues sprang forth from the American South in the 1860s and by the early 20th century would begin a cultural revolution, paving the way for jazz and modern popular music. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a film which stars Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman in his final performance, seeks to unpack that with fire. The first trailer lays out the age-old American battle between artist and and capitalist, and Black talent and white…

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01 Oct

Chadwick Boseman’s Final Film, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Reveals First Look

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Chadwick Boseman may have left the realm of the living far too early at the age of 43, but the Black Panther star’s legacy will be further cemented with the release of his starring role in Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which will stand as his final onscreen performance. Netflix has released the first images previewing Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a historical drama set in 1927 Chicago, in which Viola Davis co-stars as the eponymous Ma Rainey, a popular Southern singer dubbed the “Mother of Blues,” who’s come to the Second City for a crucial recording session; an endeavor…

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